Serbian firearms manufacturer Zastava Arms will end the year with a record export performance in the last two decades, Rade Gromovic, the joint stock company's director, said Friday.

Over the first nine months of this year, Zastava Arms has exported USD 20 million worth of products, Gromovic said at a ceremony marking 159 years since the establishment of the factory in the central Serbian city of Kragujevac.

Under contracts signed, it should export additional USD 8 million worth of products by the end of the year, he added.

Gromovic said that 190 former workers were brought back to work and 130 unemployed persons registered with the National Employment Service were hired due to the increased volume of production.

The factory's development has resulted in exporting to the U.S. market five new models of hunting and sporting guns that Zastava Arms has managed to further developed, modify and adapted to customers' requirements over a short time period.

Gromovic added that the factory had completed the development of a special grenade launcher that would become part of the Serbian Army's equipment in December.

Gromovic said a project to develop a new cannon using NATO standard 30x173 mm ammunition had been agreed with Serbia's Military Technical Institute. Its operational model should appear at a trade show in June 2013, he added.

In 2012, Gromovic said, Zastava Arms has been exporting its products to 40 countries around the world.

He added that exports of firearms and military equipment to Middle East markets were in the final phase, while a technology transfer agreement between Serbia and these countries was in the full implementation phase until the end of 2013.